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A205 
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
GENERAL SYNOD 2023
RESOLUTION
Resolution Number: A205
Carried 
Subject: Water
Moved By:  
Seconded By:  
Be it resolved that this General Synod:

  1. Affirm that all communities have the right to safe, clean, and sustainable drinking water.
  2. Commit to ongoing advocacy to ensure access to safe drinking water for all communities in Canada and globally.
  3. Recognize that we are called by the Baptismal Covenant and the Fifth Mark of Mission to safeguard the integrity of creation, including the waters.
  4. Direct the Council of General Synod, its Councils, and Committees to immediately eliminate bottled water use for all meetings, except in locations where safe drinking water is unavailable.
  5. Encourage Ecclesiastical Provinces, Dioceses, and Parishes to eliminate bottled water use for meetings, except in locations where safe drinking water is unavailable.

Source: Public Witness for Social and Ecological Justice Coordinating Committee

Submitted By: Public Witness for Social and Ecological Justice Coordinating Committee

Does this motion contain within it any financial implications? 
Yes     No

If yes, has the General Synod Expenditures Committee considered the implications? 

Yes     No

EXPLANATORY NOTE/BACKGROUND

Water is not a commodity, but is rather necessary for the life of all people and all of God’s creation. Yet communities throughout Canada and around the world continue to lack access to clean, reliable drinking water.

Bottled water facilities continue to grow across Canada in order to ship to other countries, depleting aquifers and increasing drought conditions. Water for these facilities is mostly obtained for a small cost while selling for a great amount

Bottled water is mostly packaged in hard state plastic bottles, resulting in a significant carbon footprint produced through the manufacture, transportation, and disposal of plastic bottles. Although most Canadian communities have recycling programs which accept plastic bottles, many still end up in landfills and in waterways, taking centuries to break down. In 2019, General Synod passed Resolution A201, encouraging all parts of the Anglican Church of Canada to eliminate single-use plastic products in churches by 2023.

PROCEDURE FOR ADOPTION

 (G)

In the normal course, an ordinary motion must be passed by a majority of the members of General Synod present and voting together. 

Six members of General Synod may, prior to the question being put, require a vote by Orders, with a majority of each Order being necessary to pass.

If a question passes on a Vote by Orders, any six members (two from each of three different dioceses) may immediately before the next item of business require a vote to be taken by dioceses.  A motion passes if a majority (or a tie) of dioceses vote in favour.  

Source: Sections 4 and 5 of the Declaration of Principles and sections 18, 19 and 20 of the Rules of Order and Procedure.

Resolution download and history

Matthew 10:40-42

Rewards

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

John 15:12-17

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 21:15-19

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Luke 11:33-36

The Light of the Body

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. 36 But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Matthew 8:1-4

Jesus Cleanses a Man

8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”